The present disclosure relates generally to telecommunication systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for managing the control and bearer traffic that is handled by a telecommunication system.
Telecommunication systems use various components to transfer data between endpoints. Such data may include audio data, video data, screen sharing data, and other types of media. Some of the components are physical pieces of hardware placed into the network. In some cases, Network Function Virtualization can be used to virtualize some of the applications performed previously by hardware appliances. One example of such a component is a Session Border Controller (SBC). An SBC may handle communication traffic across different networks. For example, the SBC may handle communication traffic being passed between a private network and a public network such as the Internet, a service provider's access network, or a service provider's peering network.
Conventional SBCs and other telecommunication components provide a number of different functions. For example, such components provide signaling functions. The signaling functions are responsible for establishing open sessions between different endpoints. Another function is a media transfer function. The media transfer function represents the transfer of media data from one endpoint to the other over the communication sessions established by the signaling function.
SBCs and other telecommunication functions may scale to meet demand. For example, as demand for services increases, additional components, either hardware or virtual, may be utilized. It is desirable to manage computing resources in an efficient manner.